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Thursday, August 27, 2009

Archbishop Chrysostomos of Cyprus Declares He Is Taking Turkey to Court

Archbishop Chrysostomos of Cyprus visited Poland last week to celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration of Christ, since the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Poland follows the Old Calendar. The Archbishop of Poland had visited Cyprus in May.

He celebrated the Feast of the Transfiguration at the famous shrine of the Holy Mountain of Grabarka. About 100,000 pilgrims from all over Europe attended this festal celebration, and the Archbishop was especially impressed to see the young people outnumbered the older and possessed a great amount of zeal for their Orthodox Faith.

"The Church of Poland is also a martyric church, as is ours, which is why they understand us more than the other Orthodox churches, as we also understand the troubles and problems which they endured and continue to endure", said the Archbishop.

When Archbishop Chrysostomos arrived in Larnaka, Cyprus following his successful and edifying visit to Poland, he had some strong words to say concerning the Turkish occupiers of Cypriot lands, saying: "The colonists have no right to be in Cyprus, they are intruders". He further declared, "The colonists must leave and go back to their own homeland and their own houses".

In explaining why the Turkish colonists are indeed intruders into Cyprus, the Archbishop said, "Ankyra brought them here to overturn the demographic composition of our island".

He further emphasized that "the church waited 35 whole years and I think that is a lot. Next month we will depart to the European Courts for a three-fold lawsuit against Turkey." Laying out what this three-fold lawsuit consisted of, the Archbishop explained, "First, that they do not allow us to go back to our places of worship to pray and to conduct the services of our Orthodox Church, they do not allow us to maintain our churches, and they do not allow us to make use of our property to upkeep and take care of it."

"This is a three-fold lawsuit and already our lawyers are more than ready, and I think with the help of God next month we will lay down a lawsuit", he said.